A New Beginning
by ambermichellev
Summary: After the blight, The new Warden-Commander Natalia has to deal with not only a mysterious new darkspawn threats, the crazy life of politics and adjusting to a new location, She has to deal with the romantic turmoil of Anders and her possible relationship.


"The wardens are _very _curious as to how you are still alive, Natalia..." He trailed off and Natalia stared up at him her eyes weary from the travel "I already told you everything I know" She said in a final tone, The man paced back and force the increase in his frustration and anger quite apparent "You told us nothing, Now I want to know how in the name of all that is holy did you kill the arch-demon and survive!" He said, his voice rising as he stopped right in front of her chair.. He expected an answer, she thought.. He expected her to tell him everything.. He was wrong

"With a sword" Natalia replied, curtly  
The mans expression became enraged "Don't get shirty with me, Warden" he said glaring down upon her, She stood up and glared at him with equal anger "You seem to have forgotten who I am, I am **your **commander and I deserve respect" He glared at her, she wearily sat back down in her chair "Leave" she said and the man gave her one last scathing glare before exiting the room angrily.

She was just getting back to looking over the papers on her desk when the door opened again, She looked up with a completely worn out look on her face, Anders caught the expression and hastily retreated back towards the door "I uh, I can come back later when it doesn't look like you want to shoot lasers at me through your eyes" He motioned to the door, his hand almost touching the handle when Natalia spoke.

"No, it's fine.." She said, pushing the papers aside "I've just had a long day"

"Oh, is there anything I can do to help?" He asked as he lowered himself into a chair in front of her desk, As he did so she raised her eyebrows "Help?" She asked with a slight smirk

Anders caught her meaning and waved his hands frantically "No no no, not _that_ kind of help, I mean what kind of man do you think I am?" He said, sinking further into the chair

"Anders... Don't play dumb with me" She smiled at him "I do remember that little pit stop you took on the way back from the city" He looked at her with such incredulous eyes that she had to hold back a barking laugh "What?" He said "That was nothing.. absolutely nothing" He said

She rolled her eyes at him and started shuffling through her papers again "You took a girl you just met into a room at the inn and came back** three** hours later. I know what kind of man you are, Anders"

"Well" He looked at her playfully as she continued sorting through her papers, She looked up at him and caught his expression "Not entirely" She raised her eyebrows at him "Oh I don't do I? Well maybe someday I can find out what kind of man you are then."

"Sounds like a plan" He said looking around the room, fiddling with his fingers "Anyway.." She stopped looking through her papers and smiled "Oh, changing the subject are we?" She leaned back in her chair and looked up at the ceiling "Why are you here Anders?"

"Oh, it's just.. I er... I suppose I owe you some kind of explanation for what you saw earlier when we came back .. with the lady who knew me" He sat back up and stopped fiddling with his fingers, She mirrored him and sat up as well

"Friend of yours, I take it?" Natalia said with a twinge of annoyance, he caught the annoyance in her voice and gave her a slight smirk "Oh, do I detect a note of jealousy?"

"Oh hardly, Go on" She said.. She looked at him while he was speaking but her eyes went out of focus every once in a while, She supposed it was because of the huge workload she had, Not only did she have to deal with the figuring out how to rebuild the vigil, fix the dwindling number of wardens and deal with the nobles and their smart ass mouths, She had to deal with the darkspawn threat and on top of all of that Nathaniel kept insinuating she was a murderer and wouldn't hear anything of what she said about his father

"Hello?" A voice echoed in her head..she realized Anders was still sitting right in front of her "Earth to Nat?" She shook herself to regain focus "Ugh, sorry.. I'm really out of it tonight", She said and he suddenly looked uneasy, "I can.. I can go if you want.. We can talk about this later" He said dodging her eyes.

"No please, Anders.. You can tell me" She said seriously

He eased back down into the chair and started twiddling his thumbs again "I was going to explain it right after but we got rather distracted what with Oghren's loud drunken belching and Nate's characteristic brooding... see.. The Templar's .. they think I came here to get away from them.. and while that is a little bit true, The real reason I'm here was to meet with her.. She knows where my phylactery is.."

He trailed off with a dreamy look on his face.. As if he was thinking of all of the wonders he could achieve if he were to find his phylactery and smash it right there on the ground, For some reason she pictured him riding a unicorn around the city and yelling "I'm free!", The most disturbing part of it was the thought that he would be riding the unicorn without his mage robes on.. She shook the thought, He looked at her "What?.. Did you go off in fade land again?"

She rubbed her eyes "Uh.. well, just continue" She said trying to control her face from betraying the burning embarrassment she was feeling currently.

"Well this phylactery of mine is in some sort of warehouse up in Amaranthine, I was er.. wondering .. if you could help me find it" He said, nearly stammering.. He was clearly nervous about asking this of her, possibly afraid that his fearful commander would strike him down where he sat. She decided to play with him a little bit "Oh, and go against the circle's rules? She said smirking

He sat bolt upright.. apparently not catching the humor and said "Why would you care about The Circle's rules.. Just earlier you were telling me how you thought it was unfair and wrong for mages to be locked up like prisoners in a cage, Don't change your mind on me now.. This is important!" She blinked, a little taken aback at his outburst "Calm down.. I was just kidding. Of course I can help you look for it Anders, Don't worry.. anything for a friend"

He eased back into his chair "Oh, a friend.. Is that all I am to you now?" he asked with mock hurt in his voice "After all we've been through! I was going to name my first born after you!" She smirked at him "Very funny, Now get out of here.. I have a lot to catch up on" She said indicating the giant seemingly never-ending pile of paperwork and other things laying on her desk, He stood up and turned dramatically "Fine, kick me out will you.. I hope you aren't like that in the bedroom as well" he started at her and she smiled "I would if I had to", she said with a serious expression on her face.

He laughed "Oh look at that.. Pretty AND pragmatic.. a good combination" She smiled and shook her head "Anders" she said, he headed towards the door

"All right all right, I'm on my way out now, If you would like to discuss our plan further over freeing my eternal soul from the Circle and chantries every whim, I'll be in my room" He stood in the door frame, clearly not wanting to leave. Natalia ran a hand through her hair distractedly "I don't know, I might be a little too overwhelmed with all of this..Varel certainly keeps me busy with all of this work" She sighed, Anders looked at her with a muted expression that she couldn't read "Well I'll come see you later, if I figure something out" and with that he was out the door.

Natalia was getting back to her papers when there was a knock at the door.. She looked up, It was Oghren. She motioned for him to come in and sit down "What do you want Oghren?" She said with a little more force than she meant to, as he sat down in front of her she shook her head "Sorry, I've just had a long day and it seems like there is always someone coming in through that door for one reason or another. But, whats up?"

He started fidgeting "Well er, I uh er.. I was wondering if you knew if there happened to be an apothecary around here..." He cut himself off and stared at her, Waiting for an answer "Probably" She said raising her eyebrows "Why?" she said slowly as he looked around the room "Well it's just, Uh.."

"Spit it out Oghren" she said smirking, he regained himself "Uh well, I got this burning..rash" She held up her hand to stop him from talking "Okay don't say anything else after that.." She said trying to control her laughter "Oh.. Oghren" She said shaking her head "What did you touch now?"

He stared at her incredulously "I didn't touch anything! I think it's that blasted Grey Warden stuff they make you drink.." Natalia stiffed a chuckle "Nobody told you to drink _all _of it Oghren" she said snickering

He leaned back in the chair and laughed gruffly "Well, that's all in the past.. can't regret that now" He got up from the chair, Natalia regained her composure and spoke "Just go check the lobby.. there should be some poultices there" He headed towards the door "Aye boss, Thanks for hearing me out.. one mention of the words burning and rash in the same sentence and people start going into a frenzy around here"

Natalia smiled "I wonder why Oghren.. I wonder why" She said as he left the room.

Her eyes found themselves back at the papers, She was supposed to figure out who gets repairs for their land and who doesn't, This wasn't exactly an easy job..especially considering she kept getting interrupted every half an hour, It was hard to keep concentration on what she was supposed to be doing with everyone coming in and either berating her for being alive or asking for help with all their life problems, On top of this new darkspawn threat; she also had to play housemaid to a bunch of new warden recruits who were currently down in the main hall and hadn't gone through their joining yet, She wasn't looking forward to when she was called by Varel for that, She sighed and decided to put away the papers for now and go out for a breath of fresh air..

Carefully moving the chair away from the desk and excited her office, she tip toed around so she wouldn't be spotted by anyone who had more work for her and made her way outside, Once outside the messenger spoke up startling her.

"Commander" She said in her small voice, She noticed she was always rather nervous when Natalia was around "You have messages" She said, looking through her bag as if to retrieve them. Natalia held up her hand "I'll read them later, Just leave them on my desk or give them to the seneschel" she started to turn away from the messenger when she spoke again "Yes ser, I'll leave them on your desk", Natalia laughed "Don't let the pile of papers fall on you" The messenger laughed nervously and turned to head back inside the keep.

She looked around, it was becoming dark.. The sky had just turned that orange and pink tint as if someone had taken a paintbrush and dabbed it into both colors and then softly brushed it against the evening sky, The sun was dipping neatly beneath the clouds and she suddenly wished she could do the same thing.. What with everything she had on her desk right now it was no wonder. She was either fighting stray darkspawn, fixing other peoples problems or listening to Anders and Oghren bickering all day.. The latter being the most exhausting. She headed up to the stairs to the battlements, She liked it up there.. looking out at the sky from those heights, It was one of her favorite places to think when she was overwhelmed; Like tonight

When she arrived at the top she found the one person she didn't need to interact with tonight, Nathaniel was sitting on the ledge looking out at the remnants of the sunset.. He looked behind him at the noise of her coming up "Oh" he said as he hopped off the ledge "I.. I didn't know anyone else came up here this late" he turned to leave "Oh don't bother" She said getting ready to go back towards the door "I'll leave"

"No it's fine, I will.." He insisted, he headed for the door to the stairs.. "I don't really think I want to be in your company anyway" He walked right past her and shoved into her shoulder so hard he nearly knocked her over.

She glared at his back until he disappeared through the door, What kind of person is he anyway? She thought, her mood becoming worse with each moment of this night. She walked towards the ledge and climbed up to it.. She stared out at the sunset and suddenly found her breath catching, In the midst of all of this trouble she found beauty in the sunset, It was an amazing thing to see and the wonder never ceased in her. She had been underground her entire life and there were so many things she never knew about, never got to see.. Like the sun rising, the moon, the sun setting.. That she had experienced in the last year, it wasn't just something she was going to get over. The pure beauty of seeing the sunset every single night was one of the most calming thoughts in her at that moment, She was so entranced by the sunset she didn't hear someone come up to the battlements until they were right behind her, She felt the peace drain out of her and the stress coming back full force. She hoped it wasn't Nate coming back to berate her for murdering his father, As he had been doing whenever he was in her company.

"I don't want to talk to you right now" She said without turning around, she heard shuffling of feet behind her "Oh" It was Anders "I didn't mean to interrupt you or anything, I just-" Natalia turned around to look at him, He was fidgeting "Anders?" She said getting down from the ledge and leaning against the battlements. "Er" He said "Yes, Did you think I was someone else?"

"Oh, yeah.. I'm sorry – I thought you were Nathaniel" She said, She was glad he wasn't to be honest, she wasn't sure she could deal with any more of Nathaniel and his complaining, It was starting to become very grating on her nerves and she unfortunately saw a lot of him at the vigil. Which stands to reason, it was his home. "Well"Anders said, bringing her back from her thoughts yet again "I'm glad I'm not" She smiled at him "I am too"

He looked around "Oh are you?" Natalia turned around to look at the dim pink and orange sky "What do you want Anders?" She said without looking back at him "Well, I just wanted to ask you something" he said, she froze.. Hoping that he wasn't going to ask what she thought he was going to ask.

"What exactly.. did that mean?" he asked, she could almost hear him fidgeting behind her "What did what mean?" She said, deciding to act as if she didn't know what he was talking about.

she refused to turn around even as she heard him speaking with obvious nervousness "Er, The other night .. When we.. when you.. I mean we" he stuttered nervously, Natalia was tempted to look around and see the expression on his face but she resisted the urge "Spit it out, Seriously.. I've never seen you so flustered before" She turned to look at him finally and he was indeed flustered. She walked over to him and looked up

"Are you quite alright, Anders?" He shook himself and looked down "I'm fine, I just.. I mean.. I've been, and it's kind of like, I've never really met a dwarf quite as pretty as you are, To be honest"

"Oh" She waved her hand at him "I bet you say that to all the sexy dwarven girls you meet" She smiled sarcastically and leaned back against the stone wall of the battlements, He looked at her seriously "Nah, not really.. I don't meet many dwarven girls.. If I do they kind of scare me" Natalia raised her eyebrows

"Do I scare you?"she asked, slightly hurt, His eyes winded as he saw her expression and he waved his hands "No no no, not at all.. I didn't mean it like that, I mean you don't scare me at all... not even-"

"Anders, what are you saying?" Natalia said, interrupting him" He looked at her, then looked at his hands and started fidgeting with his fingers, little sparks of lightning would shot up. He stopped fidgeting and looked up directly at Natalia

"Well it's just .. I know what you all think of me, Like I'm some kind of a mage whore and I'll just sleep with a sylvan if it was close enough.. But I think I.. I actually really like you" He walked over towards the stone wall of the battlements and sat down, Natalia followed suit and she looked at him and then giggled "What?" He asked incredulously

"A sylvan?" She said "I can picture you making out with a sylvan" He chuckled

"It was the first inanimate object I could think of.. even if they are.. technically..alive..Whatever, I'm not here to talk about walking trees. I'm here to ask you if maybe you think we could.. I don't know.. try this out?"

She shifted uncomfortably "Try what out, Anders?" he looked at her as if she were joking, truth be told she was not.

Her and leliana were still together even if she in Amaranthine and Leliana in Orlais, Distance didn't stop love and she'd be ashamed of herself if she were to get together with another person while leliana wasn't around, It's not as if they were in an open relationship.. and it's not as if they were never going to see each other again. She returned to reality "Us?" Anders said when he notice her come out of her stupor.

"Oh" She said, her fears coming to life.. her face fell and she sat closer against the wall, He scooted closer to her

"I guess that's a no then?" He looked at her sideways, waiting for an answer. She looked at him, he looked a bit crestfallen "No, it's not..a no.. I'm just already seeing someone"

"Someone?" He raised his eyebrows, Natalia sighed.. she didn't want to have to explain this to him but if she didn't someone else surely would and she would rather have him hear it from her lips and not have Oghren making up stories about how he's seen them at it in their tent late at night during his watch, Which he has said to others before getting a swift kick in a very unfriendly place

"My girlfriend, Leliana, She's in Orlais" Anders put his hand to his chin, thinking.. Finally after what seemed like a year and a half he spoke "Well, were you mutually exclusive?"

"What? I don't .. know.. We were pretty exclusive" She said, starting to regret coming out to the battlements at all She came here to relax and to stop being so overwhelmed, Not to be harassed about her relationship status with her girlfriend.

"And how, do you know she hasn't slept with a thousand orlesians since you two have parted ways?" Natalia blinked, unsure if she was hearing him correctly, it sunk in and she jolted up off the ground

"No. She's not that kind of girl!" She said angrily "If thats some sort of a joke, then you have a horrible sense of humor.. .And even if I wasn't taken I wouldn't be with you.." She stalked off to open the door, before leaving she turned back to him and said "Also, I think you should know.. The way to get to a girl's heart is not to make her girlfriend out to be a huge slut, Goodnight Anders.."

She stormed back down to the keep. Leaving Anders sitting alone and confused in the battlements.


End file.
